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I have to say I find it embarrassing fans speculating about what billionaires they would like to take over the club. Roman is still the owner and hopefully will remain so and I'm not getting into a political discussion about why he might not be we all know why. We have been so fortunate that he took over when we did so please give the man the respect he deserves.

A new owner coming in doesn't mean he or she will go on a massive spending spree like Roman. There are terrible owners all over the country who have fucked clubs up doesn't matter how rich they are. Lets not forget Roman doesn't give interviews which winds up the British media the new owner (if there was one) might be a massive shithead only interested in the spotlight and appearing on telly every chance they get.

Ratcliffe was worth £21.1 billion 6 months ago (so there is your double, and that giving all benefit of the doubt to Kellner and Roman)

(btw the ruble has crashed the last 5 years v the pound and usd in FOREX too, losing almost half its value, over half at one point as oil prices fell off the table, although rebounded now)

Ineos, the main source of Ratcliffe's wealth has exploded in value the last year and a half, so I am sure he is northwards of £23-25bn by now (maybe a shit tonne more, as he gained 15 billion quid from 2017 to 2018

Mr Ratcliffe is worth more than £21bn, according to the Sunday Times, having boosted his wealth by £15.3bn in the past year compared with the nearly £6bn he was worth on last year’s list. Most of this figure comes from his 60 per cent stake in Ineos. The newspaper calculated the value of the company at £35bn — or about seven times profits.

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AS Monaco owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian oligarch who bought a Florida mansion from Trump for $95 million, and a New York condo for $88 million, has been arrested in Monaco on corruption charges.

This is not good for Roman, they are going to keep going after him and other Russian oligarchs, especially as it is possible the Democrats today take back both houses of the US Congress and will go after Trump and all Russian power players with a vengeance

Deripaska emerged from the notoriously tumultuous Russian aluminum wars of the 1990s with a massive fortune. He was hit hard by a sharp decline in commodities prices during the financial crisis, but has since found his footing.

Russian oligarchs face new US sanctions

The US Department of Treasury intends to expand the list of Russian oligarchs on whom sanctions will be imposed. The penalties will be introduced before Christmas, the political Telegram channelNezygarpens.

"The US believes that new sanctions imposed before Christmas will inflict a strike to the Russian economy and cause mayhem into companies’ activities on the eve of the holidays," the report states.

Another US sanctions against the Russian Federation were introduced in August 2018 out of the attempt on Skripal in the UK. A ban was imposed on the export of goods and technologies related to national security.

snip

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Don't see why fans are looking and comparing owners net worth? Jesus this isn't like the transfer market where we are looking to sign a striker to replace one leaving 😂 I mean I have seen some ridiculous shit in my time on here but Roman is going nowhere and even if he was comparing owners net worth is just tedious because nobody is going to acquire the club unless they have a certain amount of money anyway....

Net spent balance is around 1,1bn for City, 700m for Psg, 650m for United, 550m for Barca, 400m for Chelsea and 360m for Real (top 6 net spenders).

Sure we managed to get whole lot of money from sales, but what the fuck did we spend it on?

Real and Barca are funded by state loans, psg and city use money laundry tactics, United too probably and they get away with ffp still. We did it fairly and got money from sales plus whatever we could afford without breaking ffp. Yet at the end of the day club spent 1,3bn on players like Torres, Morata, Drinkwater, Bakayoko,...doesnt matter if it was net spend or not. We still forked big chunks of cash on players.

And before someone still talks about net spent, look at Juve and Real who both did much better than Chelsea over last 8 years and spent less.

Also talking about not being able to compete with top clubs for top players, its just not true. Maybe the very best (expensive) like Neymar or Mbappe, sure, but 100m something are all available if we decided to go for. While Barca paid 120m on Dembele, we decided to fork 150m on Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Morata. One might think we couldnt afford to pay 120 on single player, but look where Morata, Bakayoko and Drinkwater are now. We had to spend another 60m on Jorginho, Kovacic loan fee and buy Giroud. On top of that very likely we will still need another expensive striker.

Instead of buying top striker one summer, top midfielder next summer etc etc, we go for these short fixes that in the end cost us time, more cash and just a lot of frustration.

Either you buy someone cheap and hope he turns well, or just fork whatever necessary for top player. We go for middle with decent, but nothing special players who are done after a season and still cost a shitload of cash.

The board has zero clue. We have been sorting LB and striker since Cole and Drogba and still couldnt find two fucking players, good enough to stay for like 5 years. And you dont even need to spend shitload of cash. Liverpool got Robertson for peanuts for example. Conte was complaining about signings, as did many fans but lets not forget the problem was who we bought, not the cash. 150m on three players alone, but all were wrong choices. Instead of buying 3 quality players and put 2 from academy, we go for 5 quantity players. A year later, most suck, so we have to sell them and we need to buy new ones to keep squad numbers and again we dont bring quality. Rinse and repeat. Maybe once every few years, we actualy get a great player like Hazard, Azpi, Jorginho or Kante, but its anomaly not a rule. Our current board needs a damn director and we are fucking with that too for several months now. Cant we just get things done quick like any ambitious club does? Who sticks without dof for so long? And dont get me putting Marina in charge lol. She is good with income, but this needs some football brain. We bought so many shit or temporary players and got rid of so many good ones its no fucking coincidence anymore and no one at the club got the stick yet.

We can only thank higher force to have luck with managers recently who did wonders with given players.

Only United is doing worse considering amount of cash spent and results. We won 2 titles yes but we also didnt play CL twice in three years now which is terrible considering all the cash we fork on players.

P.s. now this seems like a massive rant, but its just pointing how things are IMO. Not that I dont enjoy supprting the team this or any previous seasons. I actualy think we are doing great this year so far. The club given the players is doing very well except for that Mourinho final season and last half of season. But the board is total garbage for years now. They fuck things up and coach gets the blame.

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Net spent balance is around 1,1bn for City, 700m for Psg, 650m for United, 550m for Barca, 400m for Chelsea and 360m for Real (top 6 net spenders).

Sure we managed to get whole lot of money from sales, but what the fuck did we spend it on?

Real and Barca are funded by state loans, psg and city use money laundry tactics, United too probably and they get away with ffp still. We did it fairly and got money from sales plus whatever we could afford without breaking ffp. Yet at the end of the day club spent 1,3bn on players like Torres, Morata, Drinkwater, Bakayoko,...doesnt matter if it was net spend or not. We still forked big chunks of cash on players.

And before someone still talks about net spent, look at Juve and Real who both did much better than Chelsea over last 8 years and spent less.

Also talking about not being able to compete with top clubs for top players, its just not true. Maybe the very best (expensive) like Neymar or Mbappe, sure, but 100m something are all available if we decided to go for. While Barca paid 120m on Dembele, we decided to fork 150m on Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Morata. One might think we couldnt afford to pay 120 on single player, but look where Morata, Bakayoko and Drinkwater are now. We had to spend another 60m on Jorginho, Kovacic loan fee and buy Giroud. On top of that very likely we will still need another expensive striker.

Instead of buying top striker one summer, top midfielder next summer etc etc, we go for these short fixes that in the end cost us time, more cash and just a lot of frustration.

Either you buy someone cheap and hope he turns well, or just fork whatever necessary for top player. We go for middle with decent, but nothing special players who are done after a season and still cost a shitload of cash.

The board has zero clue. We have been sorting LB and striker since Cole and Drogba and still couldnt find two fucking players, good enough to stay for like 5 years. And you dont even need to spend shitload of cash. Liverpool got Robertson for peanuts for example. Conte was complaining about signings, as did many fans but lets not forget the problem was who we bought, not the cash. 150m on three players alone, but all were wrong choices. Instead of buying 3 quality players and put 2 from academy, we go for 5 quantity players. A year later, most suck, so we have to sell them and we need to buy new ones to keep squad numbers and again we dont bring quality. Rinse and repeat. Maybe once every few years, we actualy get a great player like Hazard, Azpi, Jorginho or Kante, but its anomaly not a rule. Our current board needs a damn director and we are fucking with that too for several months now. Cant we just get things done quick like any ambitious club does? Who sticks without dof for so long? And dont get me putting Marina in charge lol. She is good with income, but this needs some football brain. We bought so many shit or temporary players and got rid of so many good ones its no fucking coincidence anymore and no one at the club got the stick yet.

We can only thank higher force to have luck with managers recently who did wonders with given players.

Only United is doing worse considering amount of cash spent and results. We won 2 titles yes but we also didnt play CL twice in three years now which is terrible considering all the cash we fork on players.

P.s. now this seems like a massive rant, but its just pointing how things are IMO. Not that I dont enjoy supprting the team this or any previous seasons. I actualy think we are doing great this year so far. The club given the players is doing very well except for that Mourinho final season and last half of season. But the board is total garbage for years now. They fuck things up and coach gets the blame.

I miss days of Kenyon at helm.

I don't disagree with you at all. I was just asking if that fee was net, because second highest spend in the league didn't pass the eye (or rather, smell) test.

Our purchases have been terrible as a whole. I think we got good value for Alonso and Rudiger recently (besides who you have mentioned) but "value" signings are Arsenal-eque level of ambition. But the summer of '17 was abysmal. We got in, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, and Rudiger. When you play the 0-net transfer game (and we didn't even do that), you need to do better than 1/5.

It comes back to the same things, over and over.

1. Need a Club Identity.

2. A DoF who can oversee that.

3. A manager who fits that profile and keeps the team playing in that manner.

4. Then, the right players to fit that system (and you get the advantage of being able to spot them when they are younger, because you know what you need).

The club keep asking the manager to do tasks 1 and 3, while the board gets the players in that fit their profile (whatever that is). Actually, they want the manager to come in and change the club identity. The manager is expected to be Cruyff, while the board try to run things like...I don't even know...it's directionless.

Yes, we got Jorginho in who was definitely a Sarri want. I honestly think we got lucky there. I think he was in the right place at the right time to stop the pissing match between Marina and ADL.

And yes I agree with you, the team has been fun to watch this season. But, there is a problem in the background that's been there for years, and it doesn't look like it's getting sorted any time soon.